So when I win the giveaway you're going to make me staple top P90s in humbucker housing for my LP? :-D

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Ha! I'll never build another staple P-90 for less than about $650. I took a bath on the previous ones I made, though I appreciated the challenge and experience. ...but I've already had that challenge and experience, at this point.

SO much labor involved in building those, when I have to make and plate all the hardware, magnets and even the bobbins and covers myself, by hand.

I'll compromise though - if you happen to win, I'll pop a few staples into a regular humbucker for you with one of these:

Aren't you guys glad I didn't use Photoshop? Haha! Hundreds of thousands if not millions of photos all over the internet are missing with "please update your account" notices now, in place of the photos. Never trust "free" services. I host my own.

1954 P-90 Restoration

This came to me from a Goldtop that's with Kim at Historic Makeovers, for a restoration of pickups and electronics. I have my work cut out for me!

Yep. That's it. Missing all kinds of stuff and with crumbling bobbins, missing pole screws and 3 different lengths of pole screws, all stripped and some cut with bolt cutters. Cable TV coax was apparently used to hook these up at some point. The Scotch Tape holding the bobbin together is a particularly classy move. Whatever happened to this guitar before the current owner bought it, I feel sorry for it. ...but I love a challenge! Time to get to work!

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I have a skeleton 50s P90 that you may be able to use parts from if you want it, it's yours James, just let me know.

I get mine in 3 different styles. Custom made in bulk so I can have it made exactly as I want. I'm sure the StewMac stuff is fine, they sell great stuff and are a very reputable company with excellent service.

It's just not exactly vintage correct and I'd rather buy and work direct with the manufacturer.

These are the pole screws that I received in the pickups. Some nipped short with bolt cutters and, although some P-90s (and PAFs) had longer screws, the count of these doesn't add up. Every single one is stripped, as well. Ouch.

There are no aftermarket P-90 bobbins with the original 1 15/16" spacing on the market. Gotta make them yourself to do a repair like this. Otherwise the original keeper bars, baseplates, and covers will not fit.

New wiring harness, using the original switch. The switch needed a great deal of cleaning and some re-aligning of the frame, but these are built like tanks and will live on beyond us.

The replica Gray Tiger caps out there get a few details wrong and the originals are way out of spec today (well, mostly all, I do have one that somehow reads proper). ...so I made my own. I made the varnished glass cambric insulation tubing for the insulation sleeves, as well.

Back to life, to live on and rock more! I'll post some shots of the entire finished guitar, when I get them if I get the ok from the owner (I think I will, he's cool).

This early patent decal T-Top shows where Gibson pickups started to take a turn South, in my opinion. The more exact poly-wire-wound coils and the external connections to the coil starts. That was the beginning of the end, to me. T-Tops have their strong points, sonically, but they are definitely not as versatile as the earlier humbuckers, nor as interesting. Mainly, though, it was these types of business decisions that continued on through the various T-Top models until they just fell completely off the ledge, evolving into some of Gibson's worst pickups in the 1980s.

Here's another one from the same pickup. The wonky, wobbly cast keeper bars that made poor contact and have poor magnetic alignment.